Israel, Syria Report Progress In Peace Talks

September 17, 1992|By New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — Syrian and Israeli negotiators said Wednesday that they had reached agreement on several points in what they hope will be a joint document laying out the principles for an Israeli-Syrian peace settlement.

Two weeks ago, the two sides submitted their own drafts. This week, after an adjournment for consultations, they are trying to meld the two drafts into one. They are focusing on three elements.

One is the nature of any peace; that is, will it include trade, tourism, exchanges of embassies?

Another is the nature of any withdrawal by Israel from the Golan Heights, which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Will it be total or partial or phased?

The third is the nature of the security arrangements that would be established along their common frontier to monitor any peace accord.

Agreement on such a document would, in effect, establish the agenda and the objective of the peace negotiations, but it could still take months or years actually to work out the final details of a treaty, if they can be worked out at all.

Officials on both sides emphasized the need for caution in following the talks. There have been good days and bad days, they said. Wednesday was a good day.

There will be many more ups and downs before the two sides reach agreement on this document of principles, let alone a final settlement, if they ever do.

``We are continuing tomorrow and we hope that the same seriousness and the same businesslike atmosphere will continue so that at the end of this round maybe we can come out with something that can be acceptable to both sides,`` Syria`s chief negotiator, Mouwafak al-Allaf, said.

``We haven`t reached yet all the essential elements. We have discussed some of the important elements in the document, and we were able to agree, at least in a general way, on some of these elements.``

As Syrian and Israeli negotiators were reporting progress in Washington, President Hafez Assad of Syria made a surprise visit to Alexandria for talks on a Middle East peace with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Egypt is the only Arab country that has a peace treaty with Israel and could play an important role behind the scenes.

Both Israelis and Arabs have been saying privately for the last few days that if ever there was a need, and an opportunity, for high-level American mediation to help bridge the gaps it is now. But with the Bush administration preoccupied with its re-election effort, and the State Department shorn of virtually its entire senior staff to run the Bush campaign, such a mission seems unlikely.

Israeli officials said that the progress on Wednesday involved agreement on language that the Syrians wanted, stating that the objective of the negotiations would be a ``comprehensive peace``-that is, not a separate deal between Israel and Syria that ignored the Palestinians, Jordanians and Lebanese.

But added to this language is wording being sought by Israel that makes clear that a Syrian-Israeli peace has to stand on its own and not be made entirely dependent on final treaties with Jordan, Lebanon and the

Palestinians.

The major difficulty will be to find language to bridge Syria`s desire to recover full sovereignty over the Golan Heights and Israel`s wish to retain a degree of control for security reasons.

Nevertheless, after the three-hour negotiating session at the State Department on Wednesday, the chief Israeli and Syrian negotiators gave by far their most optimistic assessments of their negotiations.

The Israeli negotiator, Itamar Rabinovich, said: ``We discussed texts, we compared texts, we agreed on some formulations, we continued to disagree on some, but disagree in a positive spirit.``

Most important, Rabinovich said, ``there is a process of mutual education under way, and that is why even when we disagree on something it is possible to come back to it later.``

But Allaf added: ``We are still in the area of general principles. Everything depends on what would be the situation when we come to more specific and more detailed parts of the document.

``We shall come tomorrow maybe or the day after tomorrow to the paragraphs of the document which deals with the Israeli withdrawal in a more detailed manner.

``If we continue tomorrow with the same manner, with the same spirit,``

Allaf went on, ``maybe we can say that there is certain progress in our discussions. But I cannot tell you that now because everything depends on the document in its entirety because the document is comprehensive; it deals with all necessary elements for comprehensive, just, and lasting peace.``

Even with all of the caveats, it is clear that Syria and Israel, the bitterest of foes, are talking in tones, and working on documents, that are unprecedented in their relationship.

The only agreement between them-the 1974 disengagement of forces agreement-was signed by an Egyptian army officer on behalf of Syria.